Staff and students sign up for campus alert system

24 July 2009

Almost 47,000 Monash staff and students have signed up to be a recipient of the University’s SMS campus alert system.

The service, which commenced last year, means they can receive campus alerts via their mobile phones.

The service helps provide important information particularly in cases where a danger may exist, campus access becomes restricted, or essential services are interrupted. It is only in place for the University’s Australian campuses,

The system allows the University to quickly provide urgent information to participating staff and students via bulk automated SMS messages to pre-nominated mobile phones. The short text messages can be sent to thousands of mobile phones in a matter of seconds.
To be part of the service students and staff need to allow their mobile phone number to be securely recorded on their staff or student records.

There are currently about 3800 staff and 44,000 students signed up for the service.
Today, registered staff and students received an SMS message as part of regular testing of the system.

Monash Vice-President (Administration) Peter Marshall said when the service is initiated registered staff and students receive an almost-immediate initial alert that will pass on vital information and then refers them to the Monash website where they can then receive more detailed information.

"The website will then act as a primary source of information as it can be regularly updated as further news comes to hand,” Mr Marshall said.

"We're making use of the latest technology in an effort to get information to students and staff quickly when it's needed most."

Mr Marshall said all messages would be clearly identified as being from Monash University, to ensure the integrity of information transmitted by SMS.

If staff or students didn’t receive a text alert, they are urged to check and update their details online.

To update your details or sign up for the SMS message alert service visit the Monash Employee Self Service (ESS) for staff or my.monash portal for students.